A surprise return
JACKSON TWP — It seemed to be the spark Seneca Valley was in desperate need of.
Senior quarterback/safety T.J. Holl, who sprained his right knee against North Allegheny Aug. 29 and wasn't expected back until at least Week 5, entered the Raiders' home game Friday against Norwin with his team trailing 7-0 midway through the third quarter.
Along with making several key plays on defense, Holl led SV on a six-play, 55-yard drive that was capped with his 13-yard touchdown pass to Eric Mrkonja early in the fourth quarter.
But Norwin had one final drive of its own. Taking over with 4:01 left in the game, the Knights marched 69 yards in 11 plays. Quarterback Nick Amendola converted a clutch third down with an 11-yard completion to Zach Hall, setting the Knights up at SV's 26.
Amendola took care of things from there, rushing for gains of 19, 3 and 2 yards before finding a hole over the right side of SV's defense to score the deciding touchdown in a 14-7 triumph at NexTier Stadium.
“I'm so proud of the kids,” said Norwin's first-year head coach David Brozeski. “We had a lot of key blocks and key runs on that final drive.”
A field goal would have given the Knights the lead as well, but they were looking for paydirt. They did have a timeout left, had Amendola been stopped.
“We were thinking touchdown on that drive,” added Brozeski, “but we also wanted to be smart with the clock.”
Norwin's drive left the Raiders with just five seconds to cover 65 yards. A slant route, followed by a lateral led to a fumble that the Knights recovered to end the game.
“We knew there was a chance T.J. could play tonight,” said SV coach Don Holl. “We wanted to see how he felt in warm-ups.”
“You could tell he (T.J. Holl) was not 100 percent,” said Brozeski. “But I give him credit. He's a competitor.”
Seneca Valley looked to go ahead earlier in the fourth quarter, taking over at its own 17 with 5:46 left.
Holl completed three straight passes, one to Ben Bachik and two to Mrkonja, for a combined 23 yards. Bachik was then unable to haul in a pass down the right sideline that would have set SV up in Knights' territory. Holl was sacked on second down and his long pass on third down was picked off by Hall, setting up Norwin's game-winning drive.
“We had a botched signal on that second down play,” said Don Holl. “We were in disarray and we ended up taking a sack. Things kind of snowballed from there.”
The Knights (3-0) successfully used both Amendola and Sean Bowen at quarterback. The latter completed three passes during a third-quarter drive, the final one covering 17 yards to Zeke Kljucaric, down to the Raiders' 6. Two plays later, Amendola scored on a 1-yard sneak for a 7-0 edge.
“We have two confident kids at quarterback,” said Brozeski. “They both have different skill sets. It's not just those two. Our wide receivers and running backs were making a lot of plays, too.”
As was the case in losses to North Allegheny and Fox Chapel to begin the season, the Raiders had chances early. Their first drive of the game reached Norwin's 1-yard line, but Mason Dehart was stopped for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-goal.
Cody Boozel could not hang on to a pass in the end zone from Corbin Kessler on the next drive, which ended with Chad Izenas' missed 43-yard field goal.
Finally, a fourth-and-one play from the Knights' 12 in the second quarter was thwarted when Kessler was dropped for a 5-yard loss by Tony Schiavone.
Seneca Valley, which has made the WPIAL playoffs three straight years, is now 0-3 and staring at a road contest at North Hills next Friday.
“Every year is different,” said Don Holl. “Every team has a different personality. This team didn't win all those games the last few years and right now, we're snake-bitten. My job is to find out how to get us there.”
